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‘2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation’ Review: Diverse Mix Reflects the Medium’s Incredible Range
From a poppy French short about kids grossed out by kissing to a dark look into a canceled TV show, the nominees run the gamut of styles and ideas.
After buying a bag of brightly colored sweets, the boy discovers that each of the candies allows him a new way to communicate with someone different in his life — the worn-out couch in his apartment, Dong-Dong’s misunderstood dog Gusuri, his stressed-out single dad — but only as long as the sugar treat lasts in his mouth. In her imagination, the cast members really are as tiny as they appear on TV, which makes it frightening to think how they will survive as food runs out and vermin start to invade the studio — an idea so demented (yet hip), you wish the Academy had seen the genius in Robin Comisar’s “Great Choice” seven years earlier. Nicolas Keppens brings a more grounded but still surreal touch to his ethereal stop-motion “ Beautiful Men,” which takes tonal cues from misty Dutch masters, Edward Hopper (with its lonely figures in empty rooms) and “Anomalisa.” The 19-minute short poignantly observes three Belgian brothers, who once had long, vibrant red hair.
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